Hot on the previous topic of beetroot juice for chilblains, we have now got eggplants as an option! Or have we?
Some new research recently crossed my screen on “Antichilblain Components in Eggplant” – something like that is going to get my attention. Turns out that eggplant applied externally to relieve the symptoms of chilblains has been used in East Asia for quite some time.
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It easy to come across recommendations that urine therapy should be used to treat chilblains with lots of references to “my mum” or “my grandma” used to use it and swears by it fixing their chilblains (Google it). There is not a shred of evidence that it helps except for the unreliable anecdotes and testimonials. You will occasionally have a patient ask about it, because they heard about it from their grandma or they Googled it.
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No.
Of course it doesn’t. Its a disorder of the calcaneal growth plate that can not happen after the teenager stops growing as that growth plate merges with the rest of the calcaneus and is no longer there to cause problems. So why are you writing a blog post for on does calcaneal apophysitis occur in adults? Good question, glad you asked it. Here is why:
Continue readingWe all have seen those photos of swimmers at the Olympics with bruises all over their bodies and wondered, “whaaaaaaaaaat?”.
It is an alleged therapeutic technique known as cupping where the therapist places special cups on your skin to create suction to supposedly help with with pain and inflammation and as a type of deep-tissue massage.
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One of my favorite reads from a few years ago (2017) was ‘The Athletes Dilemma’ by John Weston and I have just now re-read sections of it. Anyone who is working with athletes needs to read this book or at least be familiar with the issues that are addressed in the book. While the book is heavily weighted to the USA sporting context, the issues are applicable to any sport in any country and those issues are faced by all those working in sports medicine on a very regular basis.
The book does a deep dive into the length that professional athletes go to compete with little or no regard to the long term health consequences to themselves. Weston does an excellent analysis as to why they are so willing to do that. The institutions that facilitate this are also critiqued.
The risk of seeing the elite professional athletes do this is the example that they are setting for children for their sporting careers and the lengths that they may feel empowered to go to in order to succeed.
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The bottom line is that supplements only work if there is a deficiency. If you take in any more than the body needs, the body just excretes it or stores it and it makes no difference except running the risk of an overload or an overdose. You can not “boost” anything by doing it. It also wastes your money, making for expensive urine.
Increasingly, you can see more advice to use zinc supplements to treat verrucae on the foot. Is that advice warranted?
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